The easiest recipe I know, this hearty soup is perfect when it's cold outside and you need some comfort.
A German friend of mine showed me this recipe when I was visiting many years ago, and I was immediately struck by how easy and fast it was to make. It barely took 20 mins to cook. The ingrdients listed here will make enough for four big bowls or two good meals for two, so its perfect for busy people, but you could get more out of this if you served it with bread and some cheese or smoked mackerel pate.
Prep time: 10mins Cook time: 20mins
Ingredients
This could not be easier to remember because you are just going to be using two of everything, just like the title says:
2 teaspoons of olive oil or butter
2 onions
2 heads of broccoli
2 large potatoes
2 cloves of garlic
2 pints of stock (or a blend of stock and wine)
2 teaspoons of green herbs of your choice
2 teaspoons of pine nuts
2 teaspoons of sour cream or yoghurt
Instructions
1. Wash and finely chop the onion, garlic, broccoli and potatoes.
2. Heat up the oil/butter in a stockpot, and then throw in the onions and stir.
3. When they are turning translucent, add everything else, except the pinenuts and yoghurt. 4. Stir on a high heat for a few minutes, and then reduce the heat to a simmer until the vegetables are tender.
5. Place a tablespoon of dry toasted pine nuts and a spoonful of the yoghurt in the bottom of each soup bowl to create a little surprise for your diners. Then blend the soup and pour a ladel of it into each bowl, and top the soup with more pine nuts and yoghurt.
7. Serve as it is, or with breads, cheeses, smoked fish pate and nibbles like my pickled walnuts.
Notes
1. You can use any combination of vegetables for this, but when making your choice, consider carefully how filling it needs to be. Tomatoes and two bunches of watercress may be refreshing, but it will not be filling at all. On the other hand two heads of cauliflower and kale or two pounds of pumpkin and carrots will indeed make for a sustaining meal, so do think about the circumstances and appetites that you are cooking for.
2. Similarly, the addition of spices and fresh herbs will change the flavour - whether your preference is for chillies or aromatics like all spice and cloves, the limit is only your imagination. I've always stayed faithful to this recipe because I adore broccoli, but I also believe that as a chef you should follow your heart. I'd love to know in the comments section here what alternative version you make, which worked out well, and I have no doubt other visitors to this site would love to be inspired too, so let's share the love!
***bon appetit***
Credits: all photographs used are either mine or they have been sourced from Unsplash, a source of excellent, high quality pictures, which are free to use.
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